Methods and Apparatus for Storage and Translation of Entropy Encoded Software Embedded Within a Memory Hierarchy

1. A method of determining a mix mask for efficiently translating compressed instructions, the method comprising: breeding pairs of seed mix masks represented as genes from a seed population of seed mix masks to produce pairs of complementary offspring mix masks, wherein breeding comprises exchanging the genes at a crossover point and a first mask of the offspring mix masks is a complement of a second mask of the offspring mix masks; mutating the offspring mix masks to produce mutated offspring mix masks that update the seed population; and determining the mix mask from the updated seed population, wherein patterns of bits are combined according to the determined mix mask to translate compressed instructions of a program to executable form.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein breeding further comprises: randomly selecting the crossover point in a pair of seed mix masks identified as parent A and parent B; and producing an offspring mix mask by concatenating a leftmost set of bits from before the crossover point from either parent A or B and a rightmost set of bits starting from after the crossover point from the parent not used to select the leftmost set of bits.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: breeding based on a randomly selected crossover point in the pairs of seed mix masks.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein mutating further comprises: randomly inverting an individual bit in one of a pair of complementary offspring mix masks to determine a mutated offspring mix mask; and replacing a seed mix mask in the seed population with the mutated offspring mix mask.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the program includes boot code, operating system code, and multiple application programs.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining a fitness level for each seed mix mask in the seed population using a current cost of translation hardware associated with each seed mix mask, wherein the fitness level of the seed mix mask represents a level of benefit for providing a high level of compression.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the current cost of translation hardware is based on an X-index and Y-index memory, an X pattern memory, and a Y pattern memory.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising: selecting an initial seed population of seed mix masks to include randomly selected mix masks and previously used mix masks which had a high fitness level for a previous program having instructions that are similar to the instructions used in the program.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein breeding comprises: picking first bits in bit locations in a first bit pattern and then picking second bits in a second bit pattern corresponding to all other bit locations not picked from the first bit pattern; and combining the picked bits to form a first offspring mix mask.

10. A translation circuit for translating compressed instructions, configured to: breed pairs of seed mix masks represented as genes from a seed population of seed mix masks to produce pairs of complementary offspring mix masks by exchanging the genes at a crossover point and a first mask of the offspring mix masks is a complement of a second mask of the offspring mix masks; mutate the offspring mix masks to produce mutated offspring mix masks that update the seed population; determine a mix mask from the updated seed population, wherein patterns of bits are combined according to the determined mix mask to translate compressed instructions of a program to executable form; and store the determined mix mask in the updated seed population in a memory.

11. The translation circuit of claim 10 , configured to breed the pairs of seed mix masks by being configured to: randomly select the crossover point in a pair of seed mix masks identified as parent A and parent B; and produce an offspring mix mask by concatenating a leftmost set of bits from before the crossover point from either parent A or B and a rightmost set of bits starting from after the crossover point from the parent not used to select the leftmost set of bits.

12. The translation circuit of claim 10 , further configured to breed the pairs of seed mix masks based on a randomly selected crossover point in the pairs of seed mix masks.

13. The translation circuit of claim 10 , configured to mutate the offspring mix masks by being further configured to: randomly invert an individual bit in one of a pair of complementary offspring mix masks to determine a mutated offspring mix mask; and replace a seed mix mask in the seed population with the mutated offspring mix mask.

14. The translation circuit of claim 10 , wherein the program includes boot code, operating system code, and multiple application programs.

15. The translation circuit of claim 10 , further configured to determine a fitness level for each seed mix mask in the seed population using a current cost of translation hardware associated with each seed mix mask, wherein the fitness level of the seed mix mask represents a level of benefit for providing a high level of compression.

16. The translation circuit of claim 15 , wherein the current cost of translation hardware is based on an X-index and Y-index memory, an X pattern memory, and a Y pattern memory.

17. The translation circuit of claim 15 , further configured to select an initial seed population of seed mix masks to include randomly selected mix masks and previously used mix masks which had a high fitness level for a previous program having instructions that are similar to the instructions used in the program.